BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --- Before even discussing the new business of the school district tonight, Birmingham Board of Education members spent more than an hour fighting with each other over various issues, including the recently demolished 1927 Parker High School building, whether the board needs training and whether or not the board is dysfunctional.

Just after the meeting began, board member Emanuel Ford said he wanted to discuss the board's relationship with Superintendent Craig Witherspoon. Several board members have questioned Witherspoon's initiatives and personnel recommendations, saying Witherspoon's lack of communication with board members makes it difficult for them to vote on his recommendations intelligently.

The discussion about board-superintendent relations began with Ford passing out a letter from an Algebra II teacher at Ramsay High School. The letter to two administrators at the district complained that students still didn't have textbooks or workbooks.

The teacher went on to say that Ramsay Principal Jeanette Watters told the teacher to change the grades of at least three students who were failing because she didn't want to deal with parents complaining that their children were failing because of the lack of books or workbooks.

On another matter, Ford asked Witherspoon why $800,000 of taxpayer money was spent renovating Epic Elementary, only to leave the old, leaky roof. The board is planning to patch the roof, but has done so before only to have it leak again.

Other complaints Ford had included Witherspoon's lack of response to a nearly 400-page curriculum audit, which pointed out dozens of problems with school instruction, testing and the curriculum. Witherspoon received the audit more than three months ago and told the board he would have a plan to address the problems to the board within 30 days.

Witherspoon said at the board meeting that he had been meeting with staff to finalize the plan and would present it to the board soon.

Ford also said he wasn't happy that Witherspoon authorized tearing down the two-story building at Parker High School, just days after Ford dropped a lawsuit against the superintendent seeking to stop the demolition. Bonds from the Birmingham Water Works, he said, paid for the $1.2 million in renovations to the building several years ago.

"We, the Birmingham Water Works customers, are still paying those bonds back," he said. "Then to read in the Birmingham News that water customers bills are going up 3.9 percent .¤.¤. I just think we have to be good stewards of taxpayer money."

Ford also said he didn't think the board is dysfunctional.

"This board has been slammed for being dysfunctional," he said. "The only thing I've said from day one is 'Dr. Witherspoon, talk to me. Tell me why you're asking me to vote this way, and maybe I'll vote yes.'"

But he said too often the superintendent adds items to the agenda at the board meeting, when board members have had no time to look at them.

"I'm not comfortable with that," he said.

Board President Phyllis Wyne said she found that statement ironic.

"We hold this superintendent's feet to the fire about adding agenda items, and then we come in here and do the same thing," she said of adding the item regarding board-superintendent relations. "It doesn't make any sense."

She also chastised Ford because he invited board members to a workshop for neighborhood leaders.

"I find it interesting that Mr. Ford invites people to workshops and won't come to board training," she said, referring to training offered by the Alabama Association of School Boards recently.

AASB Executive Director Sally Howell, along with Craig Pouncey, deputy state superintendent in charge of administrative and financial services, came to Birmingham two weeks ago to offer conflict resolution training to the board. Ford said he didn't plan to attend the training.

In other business, the board hired David Patterson as the new special education director to replace Ruth Tucker, who retired this summer. The board has been without a permanent director for more than a month because the board voted down Witherspoon's recommendation to hire Patterson at last month's board meeting.